⭐️⭐️ ⭐️1/2
This is a dystopic novel about a pandemic that wipes out all of mankind. (So not relevant to today at all, am I right?) I did enjoy this book, even though it moved slowly at times. In fact, that and the time period of the book would be my only complaints. (The book is set in 2090’s, but you wouldn’t know it...it reads JUST LIKE romantic England.) I went in expecting it to be a lot like Frankenstein, which it wasn’t, but that’s not at all a complaint. I definitely think Mary Shelley was a genius and incredibly talented author to write about the subjects, characters, and in the style that she did. As much as I love Frankenstein, this book is what really sold me on that.

Frankenstein remains a foundational text for me. Mary Shelley’s other works just can’t compare. I started to read this work, then turned to skimming, and then just flipped through chapters. Nothing grabbed me. I feel bad but that’s just my personal opinion.

4.5
exquisite! and much more interesting to me than Frankenstein

Meh. I'm not a huge fan of the story itself, but I do love her writing style.

This was not a super fun book to read. But this blog post about the book was fun to write: http://blogs.baylor.edu/britlit/2018/09/29/the-right-of-kings-in-the-last-man/

It’s hard for me to quantify my thoughts about the last man. On the one hand, I appreciate its sincere depiction of the dissolving of self and ideal in a world increasingly without hope, and the descriptions of the slow but unstoppable wheel of time crushing any idea of man being the most important being that controls everything around it. But I also find it quite dull to read, and Shelley either takes multiple paragraphs on something with no clear purpose, or quickly skims over something super essential.

But I cannot dislike something with such unique usage of a trope we now are all too familiar with, and there are some very nice passages in here once it gets going.

My mistake was thinking of it as a book about a plague, when in reality it’s about the ending of idealism, and a lament for the people who Shelley watched die, then saw their philosophy vanish into the air. So it’s a different kind of sadness I guess.

I dunno, I’m just happy that this book did go through a critical reassessment, and Shelley can now not only be called one of the creators of science fiction and gothic literature, but also be credited for popularity of the post-apocalyptic dystopian. Basically every YA book ever owes its existence to this woman it seems.

I started reading this book before the pandemic, didn't get a chance to finish it, but really liked its overall mood so kept a couple on my shelf with plans to finish it. The pandemic threw everything into chaos and so I only got back to it somewhat recently, but I'm really glad I did. It's so interesting how I was first drawn to the novel for the melancholy aspect of this slow demise of humanity, and later completely enthralled by the particular depiction of a pandemic. As I mostly read the story while flying in planes in which I was often one of only a handful of people wearing a mask despite an ongoing global pandemic, it was a strange feeling to see how our ideas about disease have and haven't changed in ways both good but also stupefying.

The characters in the story have no concept of germ theory. At first I found that weird, but then I realized we too have lost our concept of germ theory. If people believed in germs, surely they would not gather maskless on a tight airplane in the middle of a pandemic. So that hasn't changed. But also, the characters in the novel had a concept of "pestilence." They may not have known what caused disease, but they had a sense that the air could be harmful to breathe in. This is something that is different than now. We both have no germ theory of disease, nor any sense that air can be pestilent. Bring back the concept of pestilence!

Also in the novel, there is a sense that the virus can be a unifying cause. The characters are still racist (and Shelley I think too is racist, since she never suggests her characters are wrong for being racist), so that hasn't changed, but characters believe or can usually at least be persuaded to believe, that the virus levels everyone. Anyone can get it and die, so there's no point in killing each other. Meanwhile covid had no impact on war, which was my initial thought seeing the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

Ultimately, the characters' complete inability to grasp the concept of social distancing combined with their lack of any science that could fight illness means they were on scale no better at defending themselves. And yet, despite these advancements, we too are no better than them. The only reason we are not in a _Last Man_ situation is because Covid is thankfully much less deadly than the pestilence in the novel. But if Covid mutated tomorrow to become more deadly, does anyone seriously think people would change their behaviors? Covid is already the leading cause of death in America (still) and you would never guess it walking around.

I really wonder how my experience reading the book would have changed sans covid. I remember when I first started reading, the spectre of the year 2100 seemed really poignant. Like, oh my god, all of humanity could be dead within the next hundred years (especially in the context of climate change). But reading the book later on, 2100 seemed like a mistake. Like, Oh, Shelley, if only you had picked a slightly earlier date; didn't you know the pandemic hit in 2019, not 2091? Maybe it was a typo.

Either way, the one thing that holds this book back from perfection (or at least a fill 5 stars) is the racism. It's mostly muted, for what it's worth, but the scene towards the very end where the titular last man says because he is the last person on earth, even seeing a Black or indigenous person would be welcome is just so racist. His speech is basically saying that normally he would hate to see a Black person, but now that there's been a literal apocalypse he would be okay showing the barest tolerance. Alright, f--- you too then, buddy. And I don't think characters in books need to be anti-racist, but when the whole story is from that character's perspective and the author never challenges it, it does leave something to be desired.

Anyway, a strong recommendation from me, though I'm not sure who the audience is anymore. If you don't care about the literal pandemic happening in real life, I'm not sure whether you'd care about the fictional one happening in the novel, but there's probably more people out there than I care to acknowledge willing to disassociate in just such a way, so go for it.

Let's just say... this was a fitting book to read during the pandemic. To sum up... it's the year 2090, and a deadly plague hits that wipes out most of the earth.

That said.... the entire first half of this book has absolutely nothing to do with the plague. You could just start reading at 50% and not miss anything.

Looking into the history of this book a bit, I guess it was meant to be an ode to her husband and Lord Byron, but there were certainly ways she could have included these intense descriptions of characters that had meaning and purpose to the plot. As is... it is a struggle to get through.

Also, for being the future, it's far from inventive. People still travel by boat and horse, and there are really no differences from early 19th century life that I can see.

So I can't really recommend this, unless you're really craving some Romantic period literature. Yes, this is the first apocalyptic dystopian novel ever, which sounds cool... but that doesn't really make it cool.